Become a Mobile Marketing Master - Part 1: Thinking Mobile

Article
Jun 3, 2013

One of the key differences between traditional marketing—other than its mass market orientation—and mobile marketing is that traditional marketing has historically been used for creating preference and driving demand. Mobile, on the other hand, takes everything to a new level and can be used to create preference, drive demand and complete the transaction.

Unlike print, radio, TV, and even the Internet, marketers have an opportunity to engage the consumer with their brand and drive to a purchase in real time—either in store or online. A mobile consumer is more likely to be ready to take action than a non-mobile consumer.

Geo-locational technology

Many brands are also leveraging the power of geo-locational technology to connect with consumers based on their physical location. This enables marketers to connect with mobile consumers using relevant messages or adverting when they’re within close proximity to their retail locations. They can also send messages based on the statistical likelihood that their location has something to do with their future behavior. For example, hotel, airline and car rental companies can target mobile travelers who are located in major airports because of the high likelihood that those travelers will be searching for hotels, airline tickets or rental cars in the near future.

Customer engagement

Mobile is also an extremely powerful tool for reducing churn and deepening customer engagement. The Starbucks app has been downloaded more than one million times and allows customers to locate stores, re-load their Starbucks Cards and share their locations and favorite drinks with their friends via social networks. Domino’s Pizza has created a mobile app that makes ordering a pizza a surprisingly easy experience. Chase allows banking customers to deposit checks via a photograph taken with their smartphone. Consider ways you can make doing business with your company easier for customers with the help of a mobile app.

By using mobile as a business tool instead of just as a marketing tool, brands can increase the frequency of transactions with customers and, in many cases, increase the amount of each transaction. Just as important, marketers can reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction. All of these benefits have a distinct and immediate impact on the ROI of the marketing campaign.